Dimensions: object: 330 x 170 x 75 mm
Copyright: © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Here we have Saloua Raouda Choucair's sculpture, "Poem," housed here at the Tate. Editor: It reminds me of a child's building blocks, but with a far more somber, almost brutalist, feel. What material are we looking at here? Curator: The artist has used carved stone. Given Choucair’s exploration of modular forms, the repeating units echo traditional Islamic design principles. Editor: I see that repetition, but I'm also struck by the hand-worked quality of the stone. Each block feels deliberately imperfect, resisting the slickness we often associate with modernist sculpture. Curator: Yes, the imperfections offer a visual language. The stacked forms speak of balance, yet the open spaces introduce a certain vulnerability. Editor: And that tension, that precariousness… It makes me think about how such simple forms can evoke such complex ideas about construction, both physical and social. Curator: Ultimately, it prompts us to consider the poetic possibilities held within the most basic materials. Editor: An intriguing point, indeed, to ponder the poetics of construction and form.
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Poem comprises five carved wood blocks placed on top of one another to create a vertical sculpture. Its configuration relates to that of Infinite Structure of the same date (Tate T13262), but this piece is significantly smaller, as well as being carved in a different material. Rather than being strictly geometrical, as is the case with Infinite Structure, the wooden forms have softer, more organic lines and in places interlock instead of sitting squarely on top of each other. Each block is completely pierced by at least one or two large, carved holes in its sides and ends. This work is one of a number of small scale sculptural ‘poems’ made by the artist during this time. Each individual unit is able to function as a unique sculptural form and the individual units can be rearranged in different formations. This potential for interaction and movement within the work relates it to the sculpture of artists such as Lygia Clark (1920–1988), whose ‘Bichos’ were similarly kinetic, though Choucair’s work is less about an organic mutability than about the inherent structure among its parts, and its relationship to Islamic poetry. The softer lines and abstract shapes of Poem, and the visible grain of the wood, also call for a comparison with the work of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975), though once again the highly specific poetical reference in Choucair’s work sets it apart from this Western lineage.
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